Harold Evans, editor of UK’s The Sunday Times, recounts an incident that took place during a routine firefight in some nondescript zone of conflict in some obscure corner of the globe. People were screaming, gunfire was rattling, everybody was running and ducking for cover…and Don … Keep readingDon McCullin
Is he a street photographer? Yes. Is he a documentary photographer? Yes. A photojournalist? A travel photographer? A portraitist? A fine arts photographer? Yes, yes, yes, and most certainly yes. French photographer Marc Riboud isn’t easily categorized, because he’s never specialized in any particular area … Keep readingMarc Riboud
There is a long history of social documentary photography in the United States. Before there was Milt Rogovin, before John Vachon, even before Lewis Hine, there was Jacob Riis. Riis was born in Ribe, Denmark in 1849, the third of fifteen children. Although his father … Keep readingJacob Riis
He was born to an affluent family in Warsaw in 1911 and given the name Dawid Szymin. His father, Benjamin, was a publisher of books in Hebrew and Yiddish. The family fled Warsaw after the city was bombed at the beginning of the First World … Keep readingDavid Seymour (CHIM)
Matt Mahurin is hardly a household name, but you’re probably familiar with some of his work. You may not be aware of it, but you’ve almost certainly seen it. Mahurin created one of the most controversial images of the 1990s and sparked a debate that … Keep readingMatt Mahurin
In 1935, during the Great Depression, the U.S. government tried an experiment. It created the Resettlement Administration, which was intended to relocate poor urban and rural families into planned communities, called ‘green towns.’ The program was intended to create small, planned communities on the outskirts … Keep readingJohn Vachon
She was born Gerta Pohorylle on 1 August, 1910 to a proper upper middle class Jewish family in Stuttgart, Germany. For most of her life, she lived a proper upper middle class life: a good education in Leipzig and at a Swiss boarding school, elegant … Keep readingGerda Taro
Milton Rogovin never intended to be a photographer, let alone one of the most renowned social documentary photographers in the U.S. He was an immigrant’s son who felt privileged to go to college and lucky to obtain a degree that would allow him to enter … Keep readingMilton Rogovin
She was born in the spring of 1907 in Poughkeepsie, New York. Her parents named her Elizabeth Miller, though she went through life using her nickname ‘Lee.’ Her career–in fact, her entire life–could be described as remarkable. It could, with equal accuracy, also be described … Keep readingLee Miller
He has been called “the hottest war photographer on the contemporary scene.” He’s been accused of ‘war porn.’ He’s been the subject of an Academy Award-nominated documentary film. He’s won the the Alfred Eisenstaedt Award, the World Press Photo award (twice), the Leica Award (twice), … Keep readingJames Nachtwey